Public schools teach a very comprehensive sex education curriculum, exposing children to graphic sexual materials that many parents find objectionable.

The birth rate for teens is increasing. This shows that the contraceptive message that kids are getting in the schools is failing. The contraceptive-only message is treating the symptom, not the cause. Students are not being taught about relationships and the responsibilities that go with sexual activity.

2007 State-mandated sex education is taught in all Spokane public schools (unless the schools forsake sex education completely). Senate Bill 5297 prohibits public schools from teaching abstinence-only education, and requires all public school districts to teach a very comprehensive sex education curriculum that is consistent with guidelines developed by our State's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State's Department of Health. The State's Sex Ed curriculum is being withheld from parents, unless they specifically ask to see it.

The proposed curriculum exposes Spokane's children to graphic sexual materials that many parents may find objectionable. From now on, parents, teachers and local school districts will not be allowed any input into what our kids are learning in their sex education classes. School boards have been stripped of that power. Two alternatives are for 1) parents to go to the school, review the sex-ed curriculum and completely opt their children out of the classes, or 2) parents to appeal to their school districts in socially conservative communities to simply not teach the topic of sex-education.

There are many defects in our sex education courses, which teach there is no such thing as right and wrong. Traditional family values, morals and religious beliefs are no longer considered. The philosophy of many educators is that sex education in our schools is the answer to the current problems of teenage pregnancies, abortions, and STD's. More sex education in public schools will not reverse the damaging legacy of the sexual revolution unless the clear message is premarital chastity and marital monogamy.

Sex education in schools is not the answer. An eminent educator, the Superintendent of Public Instruction in California, made this statement under the subject heading: "Don't Saddle Schools with Sex Cleanup." He said,

"From morning until night, (today's children) are fed an almost unmixed diet of high-calorie, highly commercialized sex. So a lot of people are urging schools to step in and clean this mess up by giving the youngsters a good stiff dose of sex education.

People are not discouraged from becoming safe crackers by learning how to manipulate tumblers in the dark. They avoid a life of crime because they are taught from infancy that crime is evil. The only way society has ever found to discourage misconduct is to label it clearly as either a crime or sin, or both, and then punish it accordingly."

Then, the superintendent of schools concluded, "Only when we adults, in our homes, our churches, our businesses, decide that we are going to set a decent example and demand decent behavior from the young, will the children start growing up to become the kind of people we want them to be, and should have been ourselves." (Dr. Max Rafferty, Los Angeles Times Syndicate, 1965)

The "casual" attitude many teens have about their sexual behavior probably results from the very aggressive marketing of sex to our kids in advertising and the music industry.

Everywhere our youth go they are saturated with visual and auditory messages about sex. Youth may perceive that if they are going to be anybody, they have to be sexually active. It is connected to their self-esteem.

Sexual information is accessible and on demand now.

What Parents Can Do

Parents have a right to view and question the methods of those who guide the education of their children.

Parents should provide a meaningful discussion with their children before they turn the age of 8 and before they hear it from others.

Parents and teachers can teach children to "Say NO to all abuse, and tell someone!”

Child sexual abuse is often perpetrated by people whom parents trust with their children; over 90% by someone they already know and trust - family members, friends, babysitters, coaches, etc. One in 4 girls, and 1 in 6 boys, will be sexually abused by their 18th birthday. Only 1 in 10 sexually abused children tell someone. Every 6 minutes a child is sexually assaulted in the United States.

Erin Merryn was sexually abused as a child, beginning at age 7. Erin says that in school we teach children tornado drills, fire drills, bus drills, bullying intervention, internet safety and the 8 DARE ways to say “no” to drugs; however, we do not teach them how to say “no” to abuse, and to tell someone. Children must be taught to tell a trusted adult if anyone touches their private parts.

Erin’s Law is being passed in state legislatures throughout the U.S. It requires age-appropriate personal body safety and sexual abuse prevention curriculum for pre-K through 12th grade students in public schools. It educates kids on safe touch/unsafe touch, safe secrets/unsafe secrets, and how to get away and tell. http://erinslaw.org

Any State senator or representative can sponsor this bill, draft it, and introduce it to lawmakers for an eventual vote. Washington State Representative Gina McCabe has been working on Erin's Law legislation, which relates to public schools implementing a prevention-oriented child sex-abuse program. This came to her late in the 2015 session, so instead of getting a bill through the legislative process, she is looking at funding options in the budget to establish an Erin's Law Task Force. (Rep. Gina McCabe legislative update, March 27, 2015)

Parents and teachers do not need to wait for legislation to pass to begin teaching our children to say NO to sexual abuse. The “silent epidemic” of child sexual abuse has been hidden for too long. (CBN News, March 28, 2015 http://www.CBNNews.com)